Thursday, July 13, 2006

A Little Word Can Say A Lot

The Labour Government's cowardice in bending to the harassment of the US legal system is a huge scandal. The primary duty of the Government is to protect its citizens. That's something the Government spuriously claim when it comes to ID cards, yet the minute it comes to actually protecting someone's freedoms and liberties, that principle seems to go out of the window.

The so-called Natwest Three have not been tried in Britain for their alleged offences because the Serious Fraud Office and the CPS couldn't find enough evidence to bring them to trial - despite their repeated pleas to be tried in England. Yet our Attorney-General sees sufficient reasno to allow them to be sent to the US to be tried for the same matter. If that really is how our legal system operates, it is scandalous.

The Government cover-up and spin operation is equally disturbing. Leaving aside the nonsensical notion that the UK should abide by a bilateral treaty that has not yet been ratified by the other country, they try to deny the treaty gives Britain a raw deal Every Minister, including the Prime Minister, who has spoken on the matter has tried to argue that the extradition treaty puts "roughly equal" burdens of evidence on the US and the UK. The key word, of course, being roughly. Or virtually, or analogous to, or any of the other phrases that have been used. Not a single person has been able to say that they are the same standards - because they know that would be a flat-out lie.

A Government that truly cared about protecting its citizens would end this nonsense immediately. Instead we get all sorts of insulting comments from our Government, who seem to think they can pull the wool over our eyes - whilst sending people who couldn't even be tried in Britain to face trial in America. And in the meantime, known terrorists are apparently harboured in America, who refuse to send them for trial here. The system is a nonsense, and our Government is a pure, unadulterated disgrace.